{"id":51,"date":"2007-07-25T19:45:39","date_gmt":"2007-07-25T17:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southeastasia.fr\/blog-de-voyage\/2007\/07\/25\/retour-a-la-%e2%80%9ccivilisation%e2%80%9d\/"},"modified":"2018-11-05T04:51:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T03:51:11","slug":"manado-retour-a-la-civilisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petitesbullesdailleurs.fr\/en\/manado-retour-a-la-civilisation-20070725\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to "civilization""},"content":{"rendered":"

I am now back in Manado, where I find the civilization and comfort of the modern world: air conditioning and hot water, shopping malls and club-sandwiches, cell phones that pick up and high-speed internet connections...<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mandatory disconnection<\/h2>\n

The hustle and bustle of Manado, the big city of North Sulawesi, with his mikrolets<\/em>\u00a0blue<\/a>\u00a0which are coming out in all directions, makes me feel strange, after this long journey through the immense island of Sulawesi.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
In the streets of Manado. (North Sulawesi, Indonesia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Sulawesi, as soon as you go away from the most frequented areas, it is impossible to find a computer with internet. Sometimes, there is not even a connection for the cell phone. (Hey hey! Finally a real vacation!)<\/p>\n

In short, for ten days, impossible to keep the blog ... I will complete it a posteriori.<\/p>\n

To come back to where I stopped the blog, I had no internet in Rantepao, in the middle of Toraja country. The two cyber-caf\u00e9s of the city were down for one, closed for the other. I had promised photos, but I shouldn't have!<\/p>\n

So here is already a small summary of my journey of the previous days. I will try to give the details in a next article. Below, a map of the island, with my route.<\/p>\n

\"-\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the way to Poso Lake<\/h2>\n

Saturday, July 14th :<\/strong> departure from Rantepao, by car with driver, rented with "my" Dutch, for a ride in central Sulawesi. Two nights near Lake Poso, in Siuri Cottages<\/a>, not far from the city of Tentena.<\/p>\n

Beautiful region! Great waterfall (Saluopa) and nice beach near the lake.<\/p>\n

\"Siuri<\/a>
Siuri Beach, on the west shore of Poso Lake, between Pendolo and Tentena. (Sulawesi, Indonesia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Saluopa waterfall, in the middle of the jungle, near Lake Poso. (Sulawesi, Indonesia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This corner of Sulawesi is unfortunately deserted by tourists for several years, because of a serious conflict between Christians and Muslims, marked by many attacks, which have caused many deaths...<\/p>\n

The situation is stabilized now, if we believe our driver, Yunus. He has been driving tourists around Sulawesi for about 20 years. However, there are still many military and police checkpoints along the road.<\/p>\n

For these officials, the passing of blond children is a nice distraction. They love to make Jelle, Silke and Ronja, the children of my Dutch friends, get out of the car for verification purposes, on the grounds that the little boy and the two girls appear on their parents' passports. The kids comply and smile at the checkpoint...<\/p>\n

Cape on the Togian Islands<\/h2>\n

Monday, July 16th:<\/strong> long drive to Ampana, where we take the boat to the Togian islands...<\/p>\n

Then seven days of laze<\/em> on the island of Batu Daka, near the village of Bomba, at the well named resort Island Retreat<\/a>. White sand, azure water, coconut palms and coral reefs ... Ultimate dives and sunburn.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The beach of the Island Retreat resort, near Bomba, on the island of Batu Daka (Togian Archipelago, Sulawesi, Indonesia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The children of Bomba. (Togian Islands, Sulawesi, Indonesia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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